http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Danielle12287/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Danielle12287 en-us Sat, 02 Jan 2010 03:11:25 +0000 Sat, 02 Jan 2010 03:11:25 +0000 When people think of popular international cities itrsquos for sure that Paris pops into mind. A city home to the Eiffel tower and the Louvre on everybodyrsquos list to go see. How did I end up being so lucky that I have this chance to go With all of these trips Irsquove been able to go on not once have I lost sight of that. I count my blessings with every train ride and plane boarding. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/France/Ile-de-France/Paris/blog-266765.html We decided to go to Prague. Jenny Jamie Ryan and I boarded our bus at 2 in the morning to Barcelona so we could catch our morning fight. This would be our first big trip without Miguel and we werenrsquot really sure what we were doing. Irsquove always wanted to go and see Prague but didnrsquot know much about the sites or anything. When we land and exchange our money to the koruna. We fi http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Czech-Republic/Prague/blog-244835.html Lisboa PortugalLisbon the capital of Portugal is gorgeous. It has everything. It was impressive to me in all aspects. Anything you can think of it was there. Minus the food maybe this was only just really good. Itrsquos incredible just how much of a good time you can have in such a short period. All my life I have had these obvious bursts of fun and exciting things but most of the time jus http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Portugal/Lisbon-and-Tagus-Valley/blog-223262.html This is our last day in morocco.... We wake up and meet up with our tour guide Momo who plans to take us around Fes. First he takes us to the royal palace and around there. It was a totally different scene than what we had experienced before this. It was a big city. He took us up to a mountain to get an aerial view of the city and that was cool to look at because it seemed much more condensed tha http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/F-s-Boulemane/blog-222574.html Certainly travel is more than the seeing of sights it is a change that goes on deep and permanent in the ideas of living.Miriam BeardWe wake up to the sounds of the camels outside. Some not so pleasant sounds. I wake up before dawn easily when I have something to look forward to. This was definitely something to look forward to. ClaroI wake up and walk outside my tent to see a huge group o http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/blog-213197.html Day threeMore traveling inland to get to the SaharaWe stop in the most beautiful place. Its inside this huge huge canyon. It was an oasis as well. Just imagine driving for hours on end with gray orange black and all dim colors. Then all of a sudden you come across bright green palms trees and water and a whole village. We stopped for pictures at one oasis then stopped for food at the next. We http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/blog-213111.html This was our second day in Morocco. We went back to the market for the morning. Same things just as great the second time. Only now we knew what was coming and we were veterans at bargaining. I got all my gifts today for everyone back home. Irsquom shocked all over again at where I am. This is amazing.After some shopping me Ryan and Jamie sit down at a caf and have some more mint tea. This t http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/Marrakech-Tensift-El-Haouz/Marrakech/blog-213090.html ldquoThe world is an open book and those who do not travel read only a pageThis trip symbolized a whole new chapter in my life. It is impossible to put into words the things I saw and the feelings I felt these past six days. It's hard to find the right adjectives to describe things. So bear with my horrible writing and try to use your imagination to play with my words. Day 1 Flying from Barce http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/Morocco/Marrakech-Tensift-El-Haouz/Marrakech/blog-212845.html Before Peniscola we stopped by Saggunto. It is a small town but with a huge history. There are some Roman ruins which we toured on top of a mountain. Beautiful. We had to climb the mountain first.... Peniscola was a lot of fun. We went only for one night and it was only 100 euros. We had our own nice rooms. I roomed with Jamie. The day was really cold and windy. We went to the f http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/blog-207736.html Today we had orientation at 930. Breakfast was cafe con leche and these muffin pastries with raspberry jam. The cafe con leche was so good and strong and the food was delicious. This trip is really perfect for me. All the excursions sound amazing fun and cultural. The classes seem awesome as well. I'm going to take the 6 credit spanish class with spanish art cinema and culture which http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Valencian-Community/Valencia/blog-207726.html Today and tomorrow are our first classes of Spanish. I was put in the elementary spanish class with Emma Matt Kezia and Cody. Our teacher is Cristina. She seems nice but a bit strict. I'm afraid this might be too elementary for me at my level but hopefully it'll pick up. http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Valencian-Community/Valencia/blog-207732.html Today we are going to Valencia to meet our host families. I'm a bit nervous but not too much more anxious than nervous. It takes about 5 hours to get there from Madrid with one stop. Once in Valencia I start getting butterflies. This is where I'm going to be living for the next 3 and a half months. It has a good vibe. Palm trees everywhere along with beautiful old buildings. It's the http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Valencian-Community/Valencia/blog-207719.html Today we went to Toledo only a little ways from Madrid. For breakfast we went to Museo del Jamon which I had seen on the discovery channel. We were all still hungry from the small tapas dinner last night and all we had for breakfast was one piece of toast and cafe con leche. Toledo was completely different from what I expected. It was a city as an island with a river going all the way http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/Castile-La-Mancha/Toledo/blog-207712.html The feeling right before going on a trip is my favorite feeling in the world. There's the perfect combination of hope excitement fear mystery and adventure all wrapped into one. If there were a drug to replicate this feeling consider me an addict. Thursday Sept. 6th I left New Paltz and headed for JFK International Airport with no regrets or hesitation. I couldn't help but feel p http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Spain/District-of-Madrid/blog-202758.html